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Monday, 14 January 2013

Status of the Russian early-warning radar network

Construction of new early-warning radars in Russia has really taken off in the last few years. With new radars coming online and some retiring, the shape of the radar network has changed quite dramatically since the last update. Also, some new good information has come out - for example, this story that described a visit to the Main Space Situational Awareness Center has a nice photo of a chart that lists early-warning and space surveillance assets that were operational in September 2011 (thanks to AS for this and other tips).Key characteristics of the radars that are involved in early warning are in the table below. The ranges apparently assume some standard radar cross-section of a target - in the space surveillance context this would be a satellite. It would be different (smaller) against warheads.

Station

Radar

Range

Altitudes

Elevations

Azimuths

Inclinations

Olenegorsk

Dnepr

250-4600

100-3400

5.5-34.5

280-340

60-72

Pechora

Daryal

30-7200

100-6600

2-55

305-55

73.5-84.3

Mishelevka

Dnepr

250-4600

100-3400

5.5-34.5

41-219

46.9-52.9

Voronezh-VP

2-70

70-110

Lekhtusi

Voronezh-M

100-4200

150-4000

2-70

245-355

53-127

Armavir

Voronezh-DM

100-4200

150-4000

2-60

165-295

34.5-145.5

Armavir

Voronezh-DM

100-4200

150-4000

2-60

55-185

Kaliningrad

Voronezh-DM

100-4200

150-4000

2-60

187.5-292.5

Eniseysk

Barnaul

Voronezh-DM

Balkhash

Dnepr

385-4600

100-340

5.5-34.5

91-151

41.4-26.8

Gabala

Daryal

300-7200

100-6600

2-55

115-205

30-150

Baranovichi

Volga

300-6500

100-4320

3-80

190-310

43.6-136.4

Pushkino

Don-2N

120-3700

100-3000

1-90

0-360

45-135

Chekhov

Dunay-3U

300-4500

50-3900

1-49

257-305

52.9-51.1

In addition to the radars listed in the original chart, the table has information about radars that are not listed there - second Voronezh-DM in Armavir, Voronezh-DM in Kaliningrad and Voronezh-VP in Mishelevka. The radars in Armavir and Kaliningrad are assumed to be similar to the first Armavir radar. Orientation of the East-facing Armavir radar can be seen at Kosmosnimki.ru. The Kaliningrad radar is seen on Google Earth. The Voronezh-VP radar in Mishelevka is expected to be more powerful than Voronezh-M deployed in Lekhtusi - VP stands for "high potential" - so its range is probably larger than 4200 km. The radar is not yet seen on Google Earth, so its exact orientation is not known, but the radar fan can be seen on this photo, published in Novosti Kosmonavtiki.

Russia has recently discontinued the use of the Daryal radar in Gabala, but I kept it in the table, if only because it was mentioned in the context of potential U.S.-Russian cooperation.

With so many radars in operation, making a reasonable map of coverage is not that easy. I did, however, put together a Google Earth file that shows the radar fans. You could download it here. The photo above gives a sense of what's in the file.